Immigrant brothers go from Watsonville to Ivy League

Brothers Edgar and Cesar Garcia Lopez immigrated to the United States from Mexico as children, graduated from Watsonville High School and are finding success at Ivy League universities.
Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel

WATSONVILLE >> The Ivy League is a long way from Michoacan, Mexico, but brothers Edgar and Cesar Garcia Lopez charted the course.

Cesar, 17, graduated from Watsonville High School in June and just wrapped up his first semester at Yale. Edgar, 20, was Watsonville’s valedictorian in 2012, and is in his junior year at Brown University.

“It’s not about being smart,” Edgar said. “It’s about being driven. That’s how I got where I am. That’s how my brother got where he is.”

The brothers are home in Watsonville on winter break, and, hoping to counter what Edgar described as a “lack of inspiration” among many young people in their town, shared their stories.

“Going to the fields and working, that’s what’s expected of us,” Edgar said. “Watsonville’s not just about violence and strawberries. It’s about people going off and making it.”

Edgar was 9, Cesar, 6, when their parents, Juan Garcia and Patricia Lopez Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. to ensure their children received the education they were denied. Settling in Watsonville, they went to work at Dole, Juan as a forklift driver, Patricia as a box-maker.

In Watsonville schools, Edgar and Cesar learned English and flourished. Cesar, who will turn 18 in February and is one the youngest if not the youngest Yale freshman, skipped first grade and was among the first students to attend Ceiba College Preparatory Academy, a Pajaro Valley charter school that stresses higher education.

The brothers said their parents were role models. As time went on, Juan was promoted to supervisor. Attending Cabrillo College part time while working and raising Edgar, Cesar, and two more children, Angel, 11, and Lizbeth, 8, Patricia earned an associate’s degree in early childhood education. She is now a secretary at Dole.

“Dad struggled a lot, but he built himself up,” said Edgar. “He’s a true example of the American dream. He worked from the bottom all the way to the top and now he has two kids in the Ivy League.”

At Brown, Edgar, winner of a Gates Millennium Scholarship, is studying bioengineering with the goal of becoming a doctor. He has been guaranteed admission to Brown’s medical school, and an interest in sports has him leaning toward a specialty in orthopedic surgery.

Cesar is majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology with an eye toward a career in research and sustainable development. Surrounded by agriculture as a child and teen, he said he learned about the environmental and economic considerations of conventional and organic farming practices. That, as well as volunteering in the wetlands through a Monterey Bay Aquarium program, Watsonville Area Teens Conserving Habitats, or WATCH, influenced his choice of field.

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“Going away made me realize that Watsonville is a special part of who I am and where I come from,” Cesar said.

But growing up in Watsonville didn’t always show him what he could become, he added. If it weren’t for a program that takes a small group of high-achieving Watsonville students on a tour of Ivy League schools each year, he wouldn’t be at Yale and Edgar wouldn’t be at Brown.

“UC Davis was my dream. I never imagined I would apply to Yale or be accepted because it’s as prestigious as it is,” Cesar said. “Now that I’m here, I feel at home. It’s very welcoming.”

Edgar said having a vision is critical, as is setting goals and working hard to achieve them. He recalled joining track and cross-country teams as a freshman at Watsonville.

“I wasn’t the fastest, but I saw other people running out there, and I wanted to go out there and be like them,” he said. By his junior year, he was the Monterey Bay League champion.

Though rejection is always a possibility, Edgar said the key is to never reject yourself. It’s always worth trying.